Wednesday, August 12, 2020

FAIR AT HOME ~ Day 6

I’ve learned the hard way in my years of Fairing that taking a little break mid-way makes for a much better overall Fair experience. The lack of sleep and GI tract rebellion eventually demand attention. Giving my body a little break always results in a new boost of FAIR FAIR FAIR energy.

Although Fairing at home isn’t quite as exhausting as a typical Fair year, my body suggested a little slower pace today would be a good idea. At 52 and multiple surgeries under my hospital gown, I have learned it wise to listen when my body talks.

In the midst of laundry and bills and cleaning up cat barf and taking a nice walk, I did some prep for a contest I am hosting on my Facebook page on Saturday. I am not entering the contest but I wanted to do the activity myself because it sounded like a ridiculously fun, very Fairish project.


Behold The Cheese Llama
THE premier feature at the Iowa State Fair is the Butter Cow. A decades-long tradition with quite a history, every year a life-sized cow is carved out of butter and put on display in a refrigerated case so sweaty Fairgoers can gaze upon it with awe and respect (or confusion and bewilderment) after standing in line in a poorly ventilated barn for 20s of minutes.

Yeah, I’m still scratching my head.

The Indiana State Fair attempts to play along with its own life-sized cheese carving display. Last year it was superheroes.

Thanks to a suggestion from my friend Keri – who probably thought she was joking – I decided a perfect Fair At Home activity would be trying to carve a llama out of a block of cheese (butter seems too melty). But what fun is carving cheese all by yourself??  MUCH BETTER is a contest! Of livestock cheese creations!

On Friday, I will be asking my Facebook friends to post photos of their cheesy sculptures. Cheese and Fair-oriented livestock of their choice. No other rules, really, other than one I added today after examining my sculpture from multiple angles.

Having no clue what I was doing…but remembering my dad’s Life Advice to always have the proper tools for the job at hand…I wandered into a local craft store last week in search of carving implements. I eventually had to ask for help.

“Do you have any carving tools?”

“Yes, we have a few options. What are you carving?”

“Ummm….well…cheese?”

“Oh, ok, that is soft like clay. Follow me.”

Clearly, quarantine has inspired a lot of untapped creativity such that carving cheese in Month 5 is not even close to the strangest thing an employee at a crafts store has heard.

At the grocery store, I eyed an array of cheese types and block sizes. I didn’t want to commit to too large of a project. I also wanted a cheese that would hold together without being super hard and crumbly to cut. In honor of my dear llama buddy Rojo, I decided a yellow cheddar would be a good color. All of those careful considerations…plus a sale…resulted in the selection of a 16 oz brick of Lucerne Medium Cheddar.

I pulled the brick out of the fridge this morning to let it warm up a bit, hoping that would make carving easier (it did). I then poked around Woodhaven looking for examples of llama models. I might have dozens.

I finally settled on two models – a wood carving and a cookie cutter. Hmmm… A cookie cutter.

Wondering if I was cheating…and then realizing it’s my contest so I can make up the rules…I decided to use the cookie cutter as a stencil. A sharp-edged stencil that sunk about ¼” into the soft cheese with ease. A sharp-edged, sinkable stencil that made me wonder if I should prohibit the use of cookie cutters in my contest.

If I carve another Cheese Animal, I might try
a pig and use my cutting board as the model.  And
free-hand it like a real artist. I wonder if
that cheese sale is still going on...

Clueless what my carving tools were for, I picked up the pointy one and started tracing around my cookie cutter. The cheese was perfectly soft, easily allowing the outline of the llama to be carved against the metal.

Little bits of cheese accumulated on my tool. I was about to use a napkin to wipe it off and then realized, THIS IS CHEESE! Being able to snack on your art medium AND lick your tools clean while creating your masterpiece is pretty genius.

Nice and squishy

Next I used the knifey tool to slice away the big chucks of the brick. Then I used some sort of wavy tool to smooth out edges. And then the Barbie shoe thingy to press cheese bits into place. I felt very arty.

Lots of snacks!  And interesting how my llama looks
multidimensional.  That's not a camera trick; I had a lot
of fixing to do.

I eventually removed my cookie cutter and was pretty dang impressed with my Cheese Llama. It was adorable! And very definitively a llama!

The Cheese Llama


Then I turned it over.

One ear was missing, the nose was wonky, one leg was disproportionately large, and it had a tail where no tail should ever grow.

Whereas the Pretty Llama only took about 10 minutes to carve, the Backside Llama took at least twice that to patch up and whittle and amputate. I was grateful for all the extra cheese I hadn’t eaten yet that served as spackle.

This is the final version of the Backside.
Ears and front leg are still in need of
help.  Without my glasses, though, it
looks pretty good!


For the contest, I have decided that cookie cutters ARE allowed. However, two photos – one of each side – must be submitted to enter.

Stay tuned! The winner will be featured in my final Fair At Home blog!



FAIR AT HOME STATS!

Today’s t-shirt: I was SO excited in 2014 when The Fine Fair Folks offered a t-shirt dedicated to that year’s theme (it was all about seals since there was a really entertaining seal show featured, so Big Ticket that we saw it last year at the Wisconsin State Fair). I snatched one up, eager to see what the next year’s themed swag would be. Spoiler alert: themed t-shirts haven’t appeared since. Boo! I occasionally see other Fair Fan Diehards walking around with this shirt. They are my people.

Beautiful day for a walk in a Vintage
Fair T-Shirt


Today’s earrings: Pretzels, in honor of the very best pretzel I have ever had in my life. Last year at the Indiana State Fair. Thick, chewy, a hint of sweetness, just the right amount of salt. So perfect, dipping sauces were unnecessary. Mmmm….



Today’s hand sticker: I take issue with today’s sticker. Although when I was 16… Nope, still not agreeing.



Time today’s hand sticker finally bit it: The stickers sure are sticky. The little 3-D add-ons not as much. Primping little fry girl came unglued at 9:26pm.

Number of steps walked:  4,390!  That's the most I have walked in my foot brace!  WHOO HOO!

UnFair food consumed: Another breakfast smoothie! Lunch was a Spaghetti Lean Cuisine with many shakes of Tabasco sauce. I snacked on extraneous llama parts while carving, and many chunks of fresh, not-deep-fried pineapple. And enjoyed a fabulous dinner appetizer of the first four cherry tomatoes from Woodhaven’s garden. SO GOOD!


FAIR FOOD FEAST TREATS!

Last year at the Iowa State Fair, my friend Sara introduced me to Indian Fry Bread Tacos. They were amazingly delicious and a worth-while interlude from all the glorious pork products I was inhaling.

A few weeks ago, my friend Erika passed along a recipe for Navajo Tacos. Basically tacos with fried dough as shells. Sign me up!

Perusing the recipe, the fry bread was pretty straight-forward (flour, baking powder, salt, water) and appropriately lacking the sugar of elephant ear dough.



The taco meat was complicated. So many spices. Chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, chipotle chili powder (you can buy that?!?). That sounded like a lot of work. I defiantly deleted the list of spices and typed “1 packet of taco seasoning” instead. That felt good. Real good.

Tonight’s dinner was a team effort. Rob headed up the Fried Dough operation; I was in charge of browning meat and dumping a Lawry’s envelope on it.

I set up a taco bar on our kitchen counter, including lettuce and chopped onions from Woodhaven’s garden and canned jalapeños from last year’s bounty.  After a lot more minutes that we bargained for (like over 40), we were finally ready to dig in.

Onions, jalapenos, and lettuce from Woodhaven's garden!
Rob is the gardener, I am the eater

Verdict: WOW! That bread is really good! The breads were small because of our baby fryer, so we had Navajo Street Tacos. But what a nice treat to have a fluffy bready shell instead a crispy one or a boring flat tortilla! The bread was simple enough not to get in the way of the tacos (the meat was tasty but could have used some chipotle chili powder...) but interesting enough to be a part of the meal and not just a delivery mechanism.

Rob did all the work on the bread (making the dough and frying it) and he said it was mostly worth it.  The only drawback to the fry bread is that it is much more filling than standard taco shells. We each only had two-and-a-half mini tacos, meaning we have three fry breads leftover to snack on tomorrow. I’m curious what they might taste like with other toppings, like butter or jelly or hummus. You know…next week when I am back to eating more “normal” food.

It was a 3-napkin meal and absolutely worth the clean-up

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